


Pandemic

by overcastthursday



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-22 23:34:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2525777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overcastthursday/pseuds/overcastthursday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy takes Jay on a little adventure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pandemic

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for my 11th grade English class. That was a few years ago.

Late Afternoon October 1917  
Daisy and Gatsby were trundling and bumbling along in Daisy’s little cream roadster when Daisy accidently fishtailed into the gravel parking lot of Eve Bandman Park, on the backside of the grassy mountain who’s summit overlooked the Ohio River and the bushes on its riverside gazed into Indiana.

“What’re we doing here?” the puzzled, and disheveled Gatsby asked his partner, stumbling over his words a bit out of nervousness of being near Daisy.

“I’m going to show you my favorite place in all of Louisville. No, all of Kentucky!” Daisy replied, “But I’ve never taken a man up here before.” She quietly added. “It’s especially great this time of day. We should hurry so we don’t miss the best part.” Daisy hurriedly recovered.

“What’s the best part?” Gatsby was curious. Daisy had sparked his adventurist side. “You’ll see!” Daisy cried ecstatically as she approached the bottom of the mountain that was not just an exaggerated molehill. The mismatched pair, Daisy in her puffy white dress, and Gatsby in his military issue, drab, off-duty clothes, scurried up the gargantuan hill together armed with only a wicker picnic basket containing one platter of cookies, and a blanket for just the two of them.

As the pair raced against the beginning of the setting sun, they staggered up the last few steps to the crest of the hill which revealed a panoramic view of the sparkling lights of the city of Jefferson just across the river, downtown Louisville behind them, and the sun setting over the distant shimmers of Silver Hills and New Albany.

“Wow…” was all Gatsby could say in awe of a view he could only imagine, or see on postcards. Daisy noticed the shocked look and wide eyes that had appeared on Gatsby’s features, “You like it?” she asked timidly, seeking his approval of her special place.

“Like it? I love it. I want to build a house here, just so I can see this every night.”

Gatsby and Daisy stretched out Daisy’s blanket together, and Daisy collapsed into its homey smell of her room, with the gracefulness of a swan, while Gatsby tried to choose a strategic spot close to Daisy, but not too close or too far away. Once Gatsby flopped into a spot that he thought looked like the perfect compromise between too close and too far, Daisy daintily placed the picnic basket between them, unnoticing Gatsby’s pull to be close to her.

Gatsby examined his predicament thoroughly, then unlocked its lid and pulled out the platter of freshly baked cookies Daisy had made especially for their outing. He placed the overflowing platter on the top of the basket, and he and Daisy both nibbled on a cookie a piece. They sat there with the cookies separating them for a few minutes, enjoying the  
silence.

Unsure of what to do with the now unneeded cookies, Gatsby placed the full platter back into the basket as the sun began to paint dabs of pale yellow across the quickly darkening sky. As Gatsby smoothly slid the basket to the back of the blanket, he scooted closer to Daisy who was enraptured with the warm oranges and pinks the sun was now splashing haphazardly across the sky.

In the process of pointing out the shapes of the lingering pink clouds, Gatsby was able to snake his arm around Daisy’s petite frame to protect her from the dangers of the world that they were immune to at these great heights they had achieved together.

As the final strokes of painted sky began to be blotted out by the impending darkness of twilight, Gatsby and Daisy gathered up the abandoned basket full of cold cookies, and Daisy’s blanket, and began to navigate down the steep, and now dark, backside of the hill to Daisy’s roadster.

As Gatsby began to nervously clamor into the plush passenger seats of the roadster after putting the basket and blanket into the trunk, Daisy lassoed him in with her words, “I’m not ready to go home quite yet, why don’t we go for a walk?”

“Alright,” the now sweating Gatsby agreed hastily. “Where shall we go?” he choked out.

“I’ve walked around here before, once or twice, but not at this time of night…” Daisy trailed off, deep in thought.

Gatsby, unsure of what to make of this, took the opportunity to be close to Daisy.

“Would you feel safer if I were to hold your hand?” he asked apprehensively.

“I would.” 

Even in the dark, Daisy could see the nervous smile grow on Gatsby’s face, which made hers grow as well, as if it were a pandemic that could only spread in between them, and only them.

They began walking down the street, hand in hand, while the leaves chattered silently as they fell, even in the dark twilight.


End file.
